Lighting upgrade!

A

Amanda

[Woo Hoo! Im going from 80w NO to 440w VHO on a 55g. They will be here at the end of June along with my new canopy. Anyway I would like to try to keep some kind of corals at that point, So Suggestions Please!!!!!
Amanda]
 
[Softies and LPS. Hammers, frogspawn will probably be your favorites. Some others(fairly easy to keep) would be GSP(or any polyps), possibly a colt coral, and some shrooms/ricordia. That will be a pretty good amount of light for that size tank, and you may be able to keep some SPS, but you will have to keep at the very top of the tank. Also, be sure that once you start keeping corals that your calcium levels are atleast 400ppm.

Bill]
 
[Thanks Bill, I got the lights all set up tonight and man do they look good! I am wondering if purple acro is a possibility and how about clams? Is this enough to suit either of those?
You were certainly right about the hammer and frogspawn they are right at the top of my list. Thanks for your help!]
 
[If you do buy an acro, buy a small one and observe it. No reason to shell out a large amount only to watch it fade away. :( I bet your new lighting will be fine.

Colt Leathers will work, zoanthids will work, ricordias seem to be happy, a Derasa might be okay, but you'd need to feed phytoplankton. I've found when I didn't feed it my entire softy population suffered and looked really miserable. I'd stopped feeding it for about 4 weeks, only food being frozen fish food. Finally, I started feeding phytoplankton again, and everything perked up again. So I believe from my own observations that softies do indeed get food from phyto, and clams do as well.]
 
[On my tank I have two VHO bulbs (URI Actinic White and Super Actinic) which gives me 280 watts. My tank is 60" long, 12" wide and 21" deep. I have not had any problems with soft corals, I also have a bubble tip anemone and derasa clam that are thriving. I have a green open brain, red lobo brain, and brownish/green with white strips candy coral that all do well. The clam, and brains are all low in the tank. I have tried plate corals and a frag of green acropora that did not do well. I'm guessing the more colorful stony corals especially sps need more light than I can provide. Note that all of the lps corals I have plus the clam and anemone are more brown/green/red in color.

I hope you saved some money for a chiller since you have more wattage than I do. My tank is about 60 gallons and without the chiller the temp stayed at about 81 degrees. My filter is an in-line sump so there is little water cascade to cause evaporative cooling. I bought a Techlima CA200 and it has consistantly kept the tank at 77 degrees. Plus the CA200 is a heater. I noticed that my corals were much happier with the cooler temps.

Steven]
 
[Thanks everyone! Of course I like a little bit of everything just have to decide what I can feasibly do and not do. I think Ill hold off on the acro a while. So sad theres no pretty blue maximas for me! :-(
HEAT is an issue! The temp is 84 and I dont think its coming down. I have the lid propped open a couple of inches today and a big floor fan blowing across the lights and it just isnt working. I think I can put a couple of tiny exhaust fans in the back of the canopy/hood, but Im not sure that is going to take care of it. Suggestions? I guess it may be time to start looking at chillers ???

Amanda]
 
[Before I would thing about buying a chiller I would buy some fans for your canopy. I know someone that runs his tank at 84 all summer and then lowers it to about 80 in the winter. He has had massive spawning in his tank. He has many other things that add to the spawning but he says that is a huge part of it.

Keith]
 
[Well I hope to have some fans in the canopy this weekend. The tank right now is maintaining at 82. I looked at chillers and OMG!! 700 bucks! Lets hope the fans work :D]
 
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